A Soul Left Incomplete

Listening to the instrumentals of my soul,
I hear the trumpets calling out, begging me to be whole,
The very being that my soul has yet to meet,
Will be the very thing that causes my ever being to be complete,
I whisk away the sorrow of my youth,
As scars run away and begin to reveal my inner truth,
Rune-stones connect themselves on the ridges of my back,
Hoping to better my appearances and fill the dark spots that I lack,
Never have I touched a soul so pure,
Never have I found a disease that contains its corresponding cure,
Reminiscing on the pleasures of my past,
Recollecting the very treasures that never seemed to last,
I feel the sorrow of the souls left incomplete,
As I chase my own, aching, but not yet accepting defeat

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”